The cost of ownership

A welted shoe is not priced per purchase. It is priced per decade.

The construction is the reason: a hand-welted sole is stitched to the upper, not glued, so when the sole wears through, a shoemaker removes it and stitches on a new one. The upper — the part your foot has spent years shaping — carries on. A cemented shoe at a third of the price cannot do this; when its sole goes, the shoe goes.

The resole price and our repair partner are published here the day the partnership is signed — a real figure from a real bench, not an estimate. Until then the argument stands on the construction alone.

How the construction works, stitch by stitch, is in the Library.